Lethe Vita

Chapter 25

The screen shouldn't have remained blank.

The cursor blinked, as it had done many times since he had begun his reply.

He had written thousands of emails, maybe hundreds of thousands or more than that, to people of far higher calibers.

Why, then, did this one email intimidate him so?

Dear Kel, he typed.

Backspace. Too formal.

Hey Kel, he modified.

Too informal.

Hi Kel.

Platonic? Did that seem platonic?

Kel.

Yeah, because sending an email to Kelly with no greeting wouldn't be misconstrued whatsoever.

Morning, Kel, he wrote instead.

But it wouldn't be morning for her, would it?

Brandon settled on a Hi, Kelly and then became stuck on the next sentence.

What could he tell her? About the tension that had enveloped the household when Dylan and Brenda had returned from their trip? About Brandon's concern that his mother couldn't be helped? About Valerie entrusting him with another secret that he couldn't even tell Brenda? About Brandon's petrification that Brenda would collapse in the courtroom? How he worried just as much as Dylan did that his niece would be born prematurely?

He couldn't tell Kelly any of that. Those were the sorts of issues Brandon would have told his wife, or at least his girlfriend.

Kelly Taylor was neither his wife, nor his girlfriend.

She was a friend; a close friend, but a friend nevertheless, and his family problems were not for a close friend to bear.

Brandon instead wrote that he was glad Kelly was enjoying her classes, that he had every confidence in her figuring out her Master's thesis. He wrote about work - parts of it, anyway; the parts that he could tell Kelly. He wrote of the positive feedback Brenda had received from her team, that they all thought Brenda was well on her way to no longer requiring Alina's help. He informed Kelly that the hearing had been pushed back for the final time.

He did not tell her that Dylan was no more pleased about Brenda facing a court in her thirty-fifth week than he had been of her thirty-third.

"They might as well push it past her fortieth, at this rate," he had told Brandon. "Give us a better chance of not having my kid born in a fucking courtroom."

Dylan had certainly been testier than Brandon had seen in a while.

Nearly a week had come and gone before Brandon had persuaded Dylan to talk to him about it, with Dylan's only response being that he may have pushed Brenda a little too far.

"She's considering taking a step back from König until after the case," Dylan had said. "Told him earlier this week. Cancelled their date last night to hang out with Val and Clare instead."

"Well, that's good," said Brandon. "Isn't it?"

"Not when she's considering taking a step back from me, too," said Dylan.

"How much of a step back can she take?" Brandon had asked.

"Enough for me to wonder if I should bring out the air mattress before she does," said Dylan. "I knew I took it too far. I scared her off. I shouldn't've listened to my therapist, or to Nat, but I won't lie to Brenda and let her think I'm taking back what I said. Because I don't take it back. At all."